Millisecond Forums

Animation question

https://forums.millisecond.com/Topic30203.aspx

By kev_dent - 11/19/2020

Dear Inquisit,

I am setting up a simple experiment that presents a set of moving object.
I have found the "animation" parameter to be quite convenient for this purpose.
I set a start point, a mid point, and then return to the start, and loop.
I am wondering how the software interprets this command?
How often is the position of the stimulus updated? Is this on a frame by frame basis?
So far the motion looks OK but it is not completely smooth.
What is the best strategy to ensure seamless motion?
Will I get a better outcome if I specify every point along the motion path.

Thanks for your help.
Best
Kevin
By Dave - 11/19/2020

 
kev_dent - 11/19/2020
Dear Inquisit,

I am setting up a simple experiment that presents a set of moving object.
I have found the "animation" parameter to be quite convenient for this purpose.
I set a start point, a mid point, and then return to the start, and loop.
I am wondering how the software interprets this command?
How often is the position of the stimulus updated? Is this on a frame by frame basis?
So far the motion looks OK but it is not completely smooth.
What is the best strategy to ensure seamless motion?
Will I get a better outcome if I specify every point along the motion path.

Thanks for your help.
Best
Kevin

Yeah, essentially Inquisit translates the animation timing parameters you give it into stimulus frames and does the best it can to hit those timings given the refresh rate of the system it finds itself running on. As with /stimulustimes, the higher your display's refresh rate, the closer to the specified timings Inquisit can get and the smoother the animation will look.
By kev_dent - 11/19/2020

Dave- thanks
Is it possible to get output from the script which shows where each object was actually positioned on each frame in order to check and verify that the animation is behaving as intended.
Also is it possible to update the position of each of a set of stimuli during a trial in order to code an animation.
I have in mind updating the position of a stimulus on each frame. As I understand it the only way to do this would be to create individual stimuli each with a different position ahead of time, one stimulus per frame and then reference each of these stimuli in a trial.
I wonder if there is any way to dynamically update the properties of a stimulus without creating a new instance, so that it could change during a single trial?
Best
Kevin
By Dave - 11/19/2020

 
kev_dent - 11/19/2020
Dave- thanks
Is it possible to get output from the script which shows where each object was actually positioned on each frame in order to check and verify that the animation is behaving as intended.
Also is it possible to update the position of each of a set of stimuli during a trial in order to code an animation.
I have in mind updating the position of a stimulus on each frame. As I understand it the only way to do this would be to create individual stimuli each with a different position ahead of time, one stimulus per frame and then reference each of these stimuli in a trial.
I wonder if there is any way to dynamically update the properties of a stimulus without creating a new instance, so that it could change during a single trial?
Best
Kevin

> Is it possible to get output from the script which shows where each object was actually positioned on each frame in order to check and verify that the animation is behaving as intended.
> I wonder if there is any way to dynamically update the properties of a stimulus without creating a new instance, so that it could change during a single trial?

The answer to both questions is no, I'm afraid.